I have been doing some research on leucism and albinism and thought i would show it on wab to see if it's helpful or what people think... It is kind of an essay, and i have tried to write it to help clarify the difference between Leucism and Albinism...
I hope you enjoy reading it
The main difference between leucism and albinism is that leucism only affects skin and feathers, while albinism also affects the bill, eyes and legs.
In Leucism, either all or just some of the pigment cells in the skin and feathers fail to develop. The result is either the entire skin/feather surface, or just patches of the skin/feather surface appearing white or paler than usual. However with leucism the bill, eyes and legs will remain the normal colour.
White Leucistic Moorhen
Patchy leucism is also reffered to as pied or piebald leucism. Pied means black and white, and is seen in the names of birds such as the pied wagtail or magpie.
Pied Leucistic Rock Pigeon
(Eyes, bill and legs are still normal colour)
In Albinism, either all or just some of the pigment cells in the skin, feathers, bill, legs and eyes fail to develop. The result is either the entire body surface, or just patches of the entire body surface appearing a different colour to normal.
Leucism always produces white areas because it drains all colours of pigment, but only from the skin and feathers.
Albinos may be one of many colours because it only drains the dark pigment melanin which is responsible for brown through to black colouration, but it drains the pigment from the entire body surface, not just the skin and feathers.
There are many kinds of pigment cell in a creatures body. Each kind is responsible for a range of different colours in the body. Leucism affects the nueral crest (part of the developing embryo) during gestation. All colours of skin and feather pigment cells develop from this crest, and so leucism may affect all colours of pigment cells in the skin or feathers. The neural crest does not produce pigment for the eyes or harder skin of the legs or bill, and so these areas are unaffected by leucism.
On the other hand, albinism does not affect the neural crest, but it affects the dark pigment melanin directly. Melanin is also responsible for colouring the bill, eyes and legs as well as the skin and feathers. Therefore the bill, eyes and legs of albino's appear pale or white. They may also appear pink because in the absence of the dark pigment, the underlying red blood vessels shine through.
White Albino Raven
(Entire body-surface affected including eyes, bill and legs)
Melanin is a type of pigment. It is responsible for a range of dark colouration. Albinism affects melanin only. Species that only have the melanin type of pigment and who are affected by albinism will be completely white, and their bill, eyes and legs will also be a paler colour. In species that have other pigment cell-types as well as melanin, albinos are not entirely white, but instead display a pale colouration of some other kind.
Xantophore is another type of pigment. It is responsible for yellow colouration. Species who have both dark and yellow pigment types, and who have albinism, will show no dark colours because of the albinism affecting their melanin, but they will appear yellow as well as white due to the presence of their xantophore pigment.
Blondie the Albino Carpet Pyhton
(Entire body affected but only dark pigment (melanin) is drained)
Albino's can appear any colour except brown through to black, but are usually identified by their red or pale eyes.
"Albinism is widely distributed throughout the animal kingdom. It has been found in insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The unusual appearance of albino animals is caused by genetic faults in the metabolic system that produces melanin, a pigment that typically causes the skin to be coloured brown through to black. Albinos generally cannot produce melanin and so their appearance is determined by a combination of the other naturally occuring colours in their body."
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The Blondie Story
On the other hand, leucism affects all types of pigment, but only in the skin and feathers. So even if a species has several or many types of pigment, it's skin and feathers will still appear either completely white or pied (depending on how many of the creatures pigment cells are affected).
Both Leucistics and Albinos are more susceptible to sunburn and skin cancers. But Albino's are also more suceptible to vision defects.
"
Many animals with leucism and albinism lack their protective camouflage and are unable to conceal themselves from their predators or prey; so the survival rate of animals with these conditions in the wild is usually quite low. However the novelty of albino and leucistic animals has occasionally led to their protection or breeding by humans."
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Albinism on Wikipedia
Both Leucism and Albinism are hereditary and can be passed on from generation to generation. However, albinism usually needs to be passed-on from two parents carrying the genes, while Leucism only needs one parent. Albinism is often carried by individuals as a recessive gene. This means it does not produce any symptoms in the carrier. When two such carriers meet as parents however and their genes combine, they are likely to produce albino offspring.
On the flipside, carriers of Leucism usually do show symptoms. Therefore leucism is a lot more common than albinism. However if the genes of a non-leucistic parent are stronger than the genes of the leucistic parent, then the offspring may not display the symptoms, but is still likely to carry the condition ready to potentially pass-it-on to its own offspring. If a leucistic parent has a clutch of more than one offspring, each youngling is likely to be affected to a different degree, ranging from mild patches (pied) to completely white.
This is how, via selective breeding by humans; purely white breeds of domestic doves, ducks and geese have been created. They are not albino's because they still retain normal bill, eye and leg colour. So white domestic birds are actually leucistic, but leucism for them has become the genetic norm.
It is also possible to breed pure albinos.
The word
Leucism comes from ancient Greek and means
White.
The word
Albinism comes from Latin and also means
White.
Leucism and Albinism in Birds 
Re: Leucism and Albinism in Birds 
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